Packers open season at home against Seahawks

GREEN BAY (WLUK) -- The Green Bay Packers’ 97th NFL regular-season schedule – highlighted by five prime-time contests (subject to flexible scheduling) – was released by the National Football League.

For the first time since 2012, the Packers open the season at home, and will play three of their first four games at Lambeau Field. In Week 1, Green Bay will host the Seattle Seahawks and former Packer Eddie Lacy, marking the third consecutive regular season that the Packers have played the Seahawks at home.

For the second straight season, the Packers will play a prime-time game on the road in Week 2, traveling to Atlanta for an NFC Championship rematch with the Falcons. It will be the debut of the Falcons' new stadium.

Week 3 will see the Cincinnati Bengals play in Green Bay for just the sixth time and Week 4 has the Packers hosting the Chicago Bears on a Thursday night for the third consecutive season (12th straight year in primetime).

Green Bay will begin October with back-to-back road games. The Packers will first travel to play the Dallas Cowboys, marking the fourth matchup between the two clubs since 2015 (including postseason), and then will face the Vikings in Minnesota in Week 6.

The Packers’ Week 8 bye, the latest bye week for Green Bay since 2014 (Week 9), is sandwiched by two home games. In Week 7, the New Orleans Saints visit Lambeau and after the bye Green Bay hosts the Detroit Lions on "Monday Night Football," marking the third time the two teams have met on MNF and the first since 1972. In Week 10, Green Bay will face the Bears in Chicago, a place they have won in the regular season each of the last six years.

For three of the following four games, the Packers will face teams from the AFC North. After welcoming the Baltimore Ravens to Lambeau Field for just the fourth time, they will travel to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers in a Sunday night matchup.

After stopping back in Green Bay to play Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers’ first December trip to Lambeau since 2000, the Packers will begin a stretch of three road games in four weeks with a trip to Cleveland. It is the first time since 2009 that Green Bay will finish the regular season with three of the final four games taking place on the road.

The Packers will finish their slate against the NFC South when they play at the Carolina Panthers in Week 15. For the second consecutive season, Green Bay will host the Vikings on a Saturday in Week 16. The Packers have won their last five regular-season games played on Saturdays.

Green Bay will close out the regular season at Detroit for the second consecutive year, marking the first time it has finished the regular season on the road against the same team in back-to-back seasons since 1991-92 (Minnesota).

This will be the first regular season that has the Packers playing home games on a Saturday, Thursday and Monday. Green Bay’s schedule includes six games against 2016 playoff teams. Two of those contests (Detroit, Seattle) will be at Lambeau Field, while four (Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Pittsburgh) will come on the road. The Packers will play two teams (Atlanta, Dallas) that it played during the 2016 regular and postseason.

The dates and times for Green Bay’s preseason games have also been finalized.

*"Flexible scheduling" will be used in Weeks 10-15 and 17. Additionally, in Weeks 5-9, flexible scheduling may be used in no more than two weeks. In Weeks 5-15, the schedule lists the games tentatively set for Sunday Night Football on NBC. Only Sunday afternoon games are eligible to be moved to Sunday night, in which case the tentatively scheduled Sunday night game would be moved to an afternoon start time. Flexible scheduling will not be applied to games airing on Thursday, Saturday or Monday nights. A flexible-scheduling move would be announced at least 12 days before the game. For Week 17, the Sunday night game will be announced no later than six days prior to December 31. The schedule does not list a Sunday night game in Week 17, but an afternoon game with playoff implications will be moved to that time slot.